Tag Archives: tourist destination

national park

Alley Spring Mill Trail

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I am very thankful my parents took me hiking as a kid. I enjoyed it when I was young (for example, this photo of a young me hiking at Fraser’s Hill in Malaysia) and I enjoy it now (my Mom and I visited Fraser’s Hill again a few years ago).

Recently I enjoyed visiting Alley Spring Mill and hiking the overlook trail (a 2 km loop trail) near Eminence, Missouri.

Alley Spring Mill and pond

The Alley Spring Mill is in the Ozark National Scenic Riverway (part of the National Park system). The mill itself looks wonderful next to the pond and also has some interesting details inside.

bark on tree trunk

Corn and wheat was loaded at the ground level of the building and moved up to the top via the tiny buckets driven by the water wheel. Then the grain was filtered and ground using the water wheel as the source of power (moving up via the mini bucket elevators and down shoots to the machines on the ground level in sequence).

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national park, Travel destination

Stone Forest, Yunnan, China

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Vista over the Stone Forest in Yunnan, China

The Stone Forest in Yunnan, China is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The stone formations were created as the limestone eroded.

Red berries on a bush with stone pillars in the background

The Stone Forest (South China Karst) area was a shallow sea some 270 million years ago (the Permian period) when the sandstone and limestone deposits were formed. The entire Shilin National Scenic Area (昆明市石林风景区) covers an area of 400 square km.

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national park, Travel destination

Cliff Palace, Mesa Verde National Park

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John Hunter at the Cliff Palace, Mesa Verde National Park

John Hunter at the Cliff Palace in Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado, USA. The photos in this post show the Cliff Palace site (photos by John Hunter). You must take a ranger led tour to walk into the Cliff Palace. The overhead lookout doesn’t require joining a tour.

Cliff Palace at sunset, Mesa Verde National Park

Recent studies reveal that Cliff Palace contained 150 rooms and 23 kivas and had a population of approximately 100 people. Out of the nearly 600 cliff dwellings concentrated within the boundaries of the park. Cliff Palace is an exceptionally large dwelling which may have had special significance. It is thought that Cliff Palace was a social, administrative site with high ceremonial usage.

Overview of the Cliff Palace

Sometime during the late 1190s, after primarily living on the mesa top for 600 years, many Ancestral Pueblo people began living in pueblos they built beneath the overhanging cliffs. The structures ranged in size from one-room storage units to villages of more than 150 rooms. While still farming the mesa tops, they continued to reside in the alcoves, repairing, remodeling, and constructing new rooms for nearly a century.

View from Cliff Palace

View from the cliff palace, looking across the valley.

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national park, Travel destination

Apostle Islands National Lakeshore, Wisconsin

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Photos from my visit to the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore in northern Wisconsin.

Purple Fungus growing through brown leaves

An interesting purple fungus on the point trail. The main island is Stockton Island which has several interesting trails (all are easy). The photos on this post are from there and our boat ride.

photo from sailboat with view of Lake Superior and clouded blue sky

We took a sailboat ride on Lake Superior.

Yellow Flowers

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hotels, Travel destination

Duoyishu Village, Yunnan, China

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Duoyishu Village is in Yuanyang County, Yunnan, China. I took a private tour for my travels through Yunnan to make things easy on me (China and Kenya are the only places I have done this – because they are more difficult to travel by yourself than most places are).

Seated Man using a machine to make noodles

I took these photos on my visit to Duoyishu Village. I enjoyed my visit. I will post again with more photos from the many surrounding beautiful rice fields.

Blue Truck (motor not covered)

I think this is an interesting blue truck.

View of green rice fields from my guesthouse

View of green rice fields from my guesthouse in Duoyishu Village. The other photos are from close by, but some may be from a different village.

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Art, temple, Travel destination

Bayon Temple, Angkor, Cambodia

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many carved faces with trees in the background

Bayon Temple is well know for the many (216 actually) smiling faces adorning the temple.

wide shot of Bayon Temple with tourists dwarfed by the size of the temple

I was living in Siem Reap for a few months and took these photos during a bike trip from the city to visit the temples. It is a nice bike ride (very flat the entire time). You can also rent tuk-tuks or taxis to tour the sites (I have done that also). I most enjoyed biking myself around. If I remember right it is between 12 and 20 km journey depending on what you decide to see and where start from in Siem Reap.

Tourists taking photos in front of many carvings of faces

Bayon temple was built in the late 12th or early 13th century as the official state temple of the Mahayana Buddhist King Jayavarman VII.

bas-relief art carved on the stone walls of Bayon Temple

Bayon stands at the centre of Jayavarman’s capital, Angkor Thom. Following Jayavarman’s death, it was modified and augmented by later Hindu and Theravada Buddhist kings in accordance with their own religious preferences.

a wide view of the temple

This photo I took on a separate visit.

Bayon was the last state temple to be built at Angkor, and the only Angkorian state temple to be built primarily as a Mahayana Buddhist shrine dedicated to the Buddha, though a great number of minor and local deities were also encompassed as representatives of the various districts and cities of the realm.

Covered stone walkway with art relief on the walls at Bayon

Related: Bayon on Wikipedia – Ta Prohm temple, Angkor – Angkor Wat – Neak Poan Temple, Siem Reap, Cambodia – Borobudur in Java, Indonesia (Buddhist temple built in the 9th century)

national park, Travel destination

Guadalupe Peak Trail, Guadalupe Mountains National Park

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Guadalupe Peak Trail with mountains in the background

The Guadalupe Peak Trail in Guadalupe Mountains National Park is a 8.4 mile round trip hike with an elevation gain of 2,930 feet (they estimate 6 to 8 hours).

Brown beetle with a green head

If you can identify this beetle (or the other insects in this post) please add a comment. See more of my photos that I need help identifying.

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Art, temple, Travel destination

Borobudur in Java, Indonesia

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Borobudur is an amazing Buddhist temple built in the 9th century. This is a site that can’t be missed, spectacular. All photos in this post are by John Hunter.

tourists on the top of Borobudur

Six square platforms form the base of Borobudur and these are topped by three circular platforms. The temple is decorated with over 2,500 relief panels and 504 Buddha statues.

stone carvings on wall

The temple is surrounded by lush green forests and that greatly enhances the feeling of tranquility at Borobudur.

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national park, Travel destination

World War II Memorial, Washington DC

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World War II Memorial with the Lincoln Memorial in the background

The World War II Memorial in Washington DC is between the Lincoln Memorial (the photo above shows looking toward it) and the Washington Monument (below) on The Mall.

World War II Memorial with the Washington Monument in the background

The memorial was opened on 29 May 2004. Many Smithsonian museums, the White House and the Capital are within easy walking distance of the memorial.

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national park, Travel destination

Kuang Si Waterfalls, Laos

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Tat Kuang Si park is a wonderful spot for a hike.

amazing light blue colored pool of water

The water has an amazing blue color that seems almost fake in photos but is really the color of these photos. The blue is due to dissolved copper.

pedestrian bridge with blue water pool and waterfalls in the background

The Kuang Si waterfalls are about 30 km outside of Luang Prabang. You can rent a open back pickup for about $30 (really I forget I think it was about that amount though) for the trip or you can join a tour group (easy to arrange at many guest houses and travel agents all over Luang Prabang).

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